


The Beach, March 18, 1971

by MissAtomicBomb77



Series: For the Greater Good, Let's Do the News [15]
Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-06
Updated: 2013-11-06
Packaged: 2018-01-07 09:52:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1118480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissAtomicBomb77/pseuds/MissAtomicBomb77
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlie had a good laugh at her expense when she had told him that she had never been to a real beach before. They were both from the States and hell, even he’d been to the beach. Well, granted the beaches on the east coast of the United States were nothing quite likes the beaches here in Indochina, but still.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Beach, March 18, 1971

March 18, 1971  
11:11am  
The Beachfront  
Koh Thonsáy (Rabbit Island), Cambodia

“This is unbelievable Charlie!” Lee is ridiculously happy as she crouches near the water’s edge on the small island of Koh Thonsáy in her bright orange bikini.

Charlie had a good laugh at her expense when she had told him that she had never been to a real beach before. They were both from the States and hell, even he’d been to the beach. Well, granted the beaches on the east coast of the United States were nothing quite likes the beaches here in Indochina, but still. He came from literally nothing, less than nothing, if that was possible and she had everything. Never went a day without a roof over her head or food in her stomach. She never wanted for anything and with Charlie, she still doesn’t.

Poor little rich girl would be the phrase he would say to her out loud if he ever decided that he voluntarily ever needed his clock cleaned. Today was not that day. He simply lay on the beach, propped up by his elbows watching her squish sand between her fingers and toes. This was only a day excursion and he had decided on the way here that he was just going to let her dictate the day. Well, if he really thought about it, she always dictated the day but it seldom was to his determent. He also took a strange pleasure in watching her fuss about something she knew nothing about because it was rare.

They shared a strange kind of synchronicity and seemed to be able to complement the mood or needs of the other without having to say anything. So watching her worry over something painfully mundane as a day trip, well, it amused him. He’s also going to take some joy out of the fact that she’ll go crazy later when she realizes she’s forgotten her toothbrush. He grabbed it and stuck in his shoulder bag, but there was a way in which she became squirrely that made him smile and he kind of wanted to see it.

The opportunity to come to the island was happenstance. Less than a year ago, the small two square mile island was a prison camp. Abandoned now, it was a place that locals and a few tourists could spend the day. There were a few buildings on the island, former barracks and officer quarters, but they were all in disrepair. The destination was the city Kep, the city they could see from the beach, but their driver and Charlie’s on again off again translator and friend Phat was able to help arrange a trip out to the island.

“Can you swim?” Lee asks, turning from her place at the water’s edge.

“I’m a turtle.” Charlie responded. “I can even make up my own strokes.”

She laughs. “Is there honestly anything you can’t do?”

“Nope. I can do it all.”

“An honest to God Mr. Know It All?”

“You’ve got it.”

“Remind me to have a card made for you.” He watches her rise to her feet at this point and she wades into the water. The water here is clear and the sands are white. It’s deep enough to swim but shallow enough not to fear being lost to the sea. She can swim, but it’s been a long time and it was always in a pool. Her mother had told her from a young age that she needed an activity that she could always come back to that was hers alone. Something that only she could do and that required no one else to do it for the purpose of what her mother simply called resetting.

As she’s finally able to launch into a nice swim stroke, she can’t help but think of her mother. She would never say the words out loud but she misses her. There are things they never agreed on but she now more than ever she wants to know her mother’s thoughts and feelings on love. Is what she has here with Charlie; is that what her mother has with her father? Is that why she’s able to take so much abuse (well, to Leona, it’s abuse) from her father or does she have something really special with Charlie that even her mother would be jealous of?

Charlie is now relaxed as he watches her move in the water as if it was something she did every single day. He supposed that it fell into the same category as riding a bicycle. If it was something that one truly enjoyed doing and had the skills for, of course it would be second nature. The thing that was second nature to Charlie was thinking with writing as a close second. He sat up now, looking for his shoulder bag and checking for his camera.

There was not much of a story to be had here, this really was a break before the two of them decided what they wanted to pursue next. In the beginning of their relationship they steadfastly kept to their own stores and their own sources but as time progressed, they had almost become one in the eyes of everyone that knew them. He wasn’t an overly sentimental man (except when it came to Lee) but he did decide to take a few pictures for her and got up to walk the beach a few moments to take a few photos of the beach and the coast line.

He’s also debating giving her his latest purchase.

Charlie thinks that part of him should not have done it but the other part of him knew it needed to be done. It’s not much, a simple gold band and he couldn’t even manage to find a box for it. It’s in a crisp little manila envelope. He keeps fighting with himself between the merits of asking her family for permission or just doing it and then deal with the consequences. She resents her father, yet he learned later on that she wrote her mother a letter every week and never once got a response. Of course, she sent them when she could via the Canadian Embassy in Saigon to keep her whereabouts muddled, but the fact that she even wrote her mother baffled him. He wants it to be a promise to give her whatever she wants later.

He’s just not sure what she wants now.

Charlie was lost in the view for a moment as he realizes she’s coming out of the water already. Before he asks the question, she answers. “It’s been a while. I didn’t want to get in trouble.”

“Yeah,” he says as he goes back to his bag and puts the camera away. He plops down on the ground and reaches for one of the two towels they own between them to offer it to her. Before he can even say anything she’s sitting in his lap, her wet skin and hair all over his chest. He takes a sharp intake of breath, it’s an unexpected chill. Then he realizes that she’s using him as a towel. She leans back, her head on his shoulder looking up into his face.

“As long as I live, the first thought of you I’m going to have is of your face looking at me upside down, with a beard however.” She rubs his smooth face with one of her hands. “I like you this way too. I’m not sure I have a preference.”


End file.
